Published: November 24, 2010

College football’s firing and hiring season will begin in earnest in the next few weeks, and Mike Leach is hoping to land a job after his contentious firing as coach at Texas Tech last year, partly on the grounds that he mistreated one of his players.

Related

KCBD, via Associated Press

Adam James was placed in this equipment shed at a practice while recovering from a concussion.

Leach said a key to his re-entry into major college football lies in the thousands of pages of court documents tied to his lawsuit against Texas Tech. He is seeking more than $12 million for breach of contract.

Texas Tech fired Leach on Dec. 29, 2009, for “continuous acts of insubordination” and his treatment of wide receiver Adam James, who accused Leach of isolating him in an equipment garage and media room while he was sitting out practice because
of a concussion. The university said Leach’s treatment of James was “meant to demean, humiliate and punish the player rather than to serve the team’s best interest.”

The university has refused to pay Leach the rest of a five-year, $12.7 million contract he signed in February 2009.

“I think there’s no question that they clear my name,” Leach said of the depositions in the lawsuit. “The trouble is that enough lies have been dispersed by these people, aided by
ESPN, it’s difficult for people to get the clear picture.”

The view from the James family is completely the reverse. “Those court documents are going to be devastating to him,” said Scott McLaughlin, the James family lawyer.

The documents, which are included in filings with the District Court of Lubbock County, Tex., where the lawsuit was filed, include testimony from Adam James, the son of the ESPN broadcaster Craig James. Adam James said he ended up being confined in an
electrical closet after misunderstanding a team trainer’s instructions.

ESPN was the first to report the incident, saying via Twitter,
“Mike Leach is alleged to have isolated a player in a dark closet for not practicing with a concussion.”

James said in the deposition that he was locked in the closet, but also said he meant that he felt locked in more than that he was literally locked in. James also testified that Leach’s actions did not put him in medical harm.

Leach maintains that Craig James was unhappy with his son’s lack of playing time and that Texas Tech administrators were upset about difficult contract negotiations with him and were looking for an opportunity to fire him.

“We’ll go to trial in a heartbeat, and we’re excited about it,” Leach said in a telephone interview this week. “Beside the obvious fact we’ll be made whole by the contract and the facts prove that, it will also
provide a public opportunity to clear my name.”

Adam James’s accounts in the deposition vary from describing Leach’s handling of his situation as “funny” and “humorous” to feeling like a “prisoner” and a “slave.”

In the deposition, Leach said he separated James from practice on Dec. 17 and Dec. 19 to prevent him from being a distraction to the team. Leach said he did so because James showed up late to practice wearing a hat backward and sunglasses. Even injured
players were required to do some sort of workout.

Leach said there had been other discipline problems with James during the year, including James’s breaking a door in the football offices, which cost more than $1,000 to replace, after he was demoted to the third team.

Leach and James agree that on Dec. 17, James was placed in the equipment shed — in some places in the deposition it is referred to as a garage — by the head trainer, Steve Pincock. Leach testified that he did not specifically instruct James
to go there but said he had no problem with it as James needed to be in a dark place because of his sensitivity to light. (The space is big enough that the offensive linemen go there during special-teams drills
to eat ice.)

James said he was monitored by a trainer, went to the bathroom at one point and “thought the idea of it was funny.”

James said he went into the electrical closet for part of the Dec. 19 practice.

James said in his deposition that Pincock took him to the media room and said, “I want you to stay here.” James testified that because Pincock was standing near the electrical closet when he said “stay here,” it was his “assumption”
that he was supposed to enter the closet.

“Nobody held my hand and put me in there, no,” James said of the electrical closet. He also added, “Nobody said, ‘Adam, stay in the media room.’ ”

James said his assumption stemmed from Pincock’s relaying a profanity-laced tirade by Leach that included the line that Leach wanted James in the “the smallest, darkest and most claustrophobic” place.

Leach maintains that he never spoke directly to James.

Pincock said in a statement that he told James there was “no way” he should enter the closet. James said he did not recall Pincock’s telling him that.

Pincock said he intended for James to stay in the media room, which is bigger than a one-car garage. But Pincock left the room, and James said he entered the closet. “I stayed where I thought I was supposed to be,” James said.

Paul Dobrowski, one of Leach’s lawyers, said: “Mike is no saint, but he never harmed Adam James. Under his contract, Mike is responsible for team discipline. Mike properly treated Adam as a concussed player who violated team rules, had been
a discipline problem and was a distraction to the team.”

James told the university’s investigator, Charlotte Bingham, that he went into the closet for five minutes. In his deposition interview he said he was in the closet for “maybe an hour.” James took a video of the closet that his family
released to the news media through a public relations firm.

While Adam James said he did not recall anyone locking the closet door, or even if there was a lock, he said several times in the deposition that he was locked in the electrical closet specifically by Leach. He said he characterized it that way because
he felt locked in, not because he was actually locked in.

“I don’t think there’s a difference between how he felt and what happened,” said McLaughlin, the James family lawyer.

Leach, who has a law degree from Pepperdine, said he did not expect James’s story to be a major factor in his case.

“The Adam James thing has been shot so full of holes they scarcely argue it,” he said. “They lose credibility every time they do and they get blasted.”

James’s lawyer disagreed. “I think Adam’s story easily holds up,” McLaughlin said. He added about Leach’s testimony, “I was really kind of shocked at how unrepentant he was for what he calls discipline.”

Leach’s lawyers say that some documents they included in their filing help their case and that the most illuminating is an e-mail from a Board of Regents member, Larry Anders, to Tech’s chancellor, Kent Hance. The e-mail came after a letter
drafted by the university’s president, Guy Bailey, and its athletic director, Gerald Myers, suggested that Tech should reprimand Leach privately and fine him $60,000 over the James incident.

Anders e-mailed Hance that he “strongly urges” him not to come to that resolution. “I don’t want to eliminate our ability to use this to our advantage should we determine to use it to terminate Leach,” Anders wrote.

Days later, Texas Tech did terminate Leach.

Leach said it was impossible to say if he would have accepted the $60,000 fine because it was never offered to him. He declined to comment on the possibility of settling the case.

Grigg, Texas Tech’s lawyer, said: “It takes two to settle. I think that this thing would be better for both sides to get it over with and move on.”

A version of this article appeared in print on November 25, 2010, on page B10 of the New York edition.